


Homecoming

by ggfj84



Series: Reality 23 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Admiral Allura, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Black Paladin Shiro (Voltron), Gen, Red Paladin Keith (Voltron), Shiro sees his grandfather again, THERE BE FEELS HERE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 12:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggfj84/pseuds/ggfj84
Summary: Before the Atlas heads back into space, Keith reminds Shiro that while he returned to Earth, he never went back home. But home comes to Shiro.





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Ashacrone for helping me with Shiro's grandfather's name. All mistakes are mine, though. 
> 
> Also, this takes place in an alternate reality where Allura is the admiral of the Atlas and Shiro still flies Black.

The Admiralty set the launch date, and the garrison went into high gear, making sure to check and double check all the systems and protocols. Along with Allura and Keith, Shiro helped to prepare the paladins, running drills and getting the lions situated in their new hangers on the Atlas (Red needed to stop trying to get out before the doors opened and if Green wouldn’t take everything apart…). The team also worked alongside Lotor and his generals, plus Rizavi and her pilots to get their formations flawless. 

Shiro equally looked forward to and dreaded Launch Day, and though he knew Keith would bring it up, he never thought he’d do it flat on his back, trapped underneath Shiro’s Galran arm during one of their sparring matches. 

“You’re – uh – gonna go see him, right?” 

Shiro’s hold only weakened a bit, but it was enough for Keith to take advantage. He rolled away, then swiped out a leg. Shiro managed to block, but Keith was too quick, slamming Shiro back down and pinning him effectively. Shiro tugged at the arm holding his, winced at the knee in the small of his back, and admitted defeat. He tapped out after five seconds. 

Keith eased off him and returned by the time he sat up, offering a towel and a water pouch. “You have to go see him. You know that, right?”

Shiro wiped his face and stood. “I’m not, and I don’t. End of discussion.”

Keith huffed as he swiped the back of his neck. “Come on, Shiro. He’s your only living relative.”

“Only _biological_ relative.” The paladins were his family now, along with Allura and Coran, Iverson, the Holts, Kolivan and Krolia, Lotor and his team – but he didn’t need to explain that to Keith. “And you weren’t there for our last conversation, Keith.”

“Look, whatever he said or you said – it doesn’t matter now.”

“Not getting into it.” Shiro threw his towel into a bin and headed for the exit. 

Keith gave chase, into the hallway and onto the elevator. “You can’t just ignore him. He’s gonna want to see you before we –”

“Keith, this doesn’t concern – ”

The elevators doors shut, giving Keith the privacy Shiro wanted to avoid. The spitfire turned his acidic gaze on Shiro, burning through to his soul. “We discussed this, remember? You’re going to be more open. You’re going to rely upon us. If you don’t want to talk about it with me, then fine. Don’t. Talk to Allura or Commander Holt or Iverson. Get Colleen, or I’ll even call Mom. Whatever. Just – ” Keith sighed and pushed his long bangs out of his face. “You need to see him, Shiro. Before…you can’t.”

Shiro wanted nothing more than to run away from the memories that suddenly assaulted him, and a part of him would have if not for the desperate look in Keith’s eyes. Unlike the last time they talked – about him learning how to cope with PTSD – Shiro began to recognize the signs of when he needed to talk to someone, for release or comfort. Now was not one of them, but to soothe Keith’s restless desire to help, he would. 

“He wanted me off the Kerberos mission,” Shiro blurted before he lost his nerve. “He told me I couldn’t do it and to find something else to do with my life. He was the driving force behind Sanda demanding I be grounded, not Iverson. And if not for Sam…” Shiro stuffed his hands into his sweatpants’ pockets and leaned back against the elevator doors, letting out a frustrated sigh. “He refused to go to the launch, Keith. You know that. He didn’t want to see me then, so you know what? He doesn’t get to see me now.”

Keith, of course, couldn’t let that go. “He came here. After the crash. I saw him with Iverson and Sanda. He didn’t just – ”

“Keith, I know what you’re trying to do, but it’s really—”

“He came to see me.”

Shiro stopped short in the paladins’ corridor and turned halfway around to see Keith. “He…came to see you? Why?”

Keith’s shoulders squared, and his eyes blazed under that dark curtain of bangs. “Because he didn’t believe you crashed either. He wanted to see the footage, and there wasn’t any. He told me that, said not to lose faith. That if you were alive, you’d come home.” Keith was nothing if not persistent. “And you didn’t.”

Not to Yokohama, in any case. _Quiznak._

“Low blow.”

“Nah, pretty accurate.” Oh, Keith had that little twist in his voice, the one that said he knew he was right. 

Shiro let out an infinitesimal sigh and met Keith’s awaiting gaze. “You’ll come with me? You’re not going to push this hard and then not listen to him ream me out from now until Launch Day.” 

Keith slapped Shiro on the shoulder as he hurried to his room. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

A shower, shave, and Shiro stepped out of his room in his old racing jacket and jeans. He’d say he was surprised that Lance, Hunk, and Pidge joined Keith outside of Allura’s office, but he wasn’t. He also wasn’t surprised when Allura stepped out, dressed in a casual white dress with a pink and black overjacket and calf-high boots. 

“I’ve already contacted Lotor and Rizavi, so we’ll have a little over 48 hours before a few of us need to return. Iverson will contact us if something comes up that needs our attention.”

Shiro decided to take Black, though Black remained suspiciously silent when Shiro walked up to him. He placed a hand up to the beast, and though Black lowered his snout to greet, he refused to open his mouth. 

“Black?” Shiro rubbed his hand back and forth across the beast’s nose. “What’s wrong?”

“Shiro?” Iverson called, proper and heavy, and when Shiro turned, the sympathetic glint in Iverson’s eyes caused alarm. “There’s someone here to see you.”

Allura stepped forward, ready to override him, when Iverson replied, “This can’t wait, Admiral.”

Iverson led Shiro and the paladins to their deck, which opened to the common room. Similar to the rec room on the Castle of Lions’, twin couches occupied a sunken section, and on one end, a large advisory screen stretched across the wall and linked directly to the Atlas’ communications system. Instead of two doors, seven formed a perimeter about the room – one for each paladin, including Allura, leading into their personal quarters. 

The room was lived in with Pidge’s gaming device attached to the screen, with a coffee machine in the kitchenette area, with Keith’s Blade uniform thrown over the back of one of the couches, with miscellaneous pieces of Hunk’s gadgets leading to his room, with the mice and the sponges snuggled in their tiny bed and Cosmo eying the man standing before the communications’ console. 

He was tall and broad, and held himself like a military officer. He wore the dark navy jacket and slacks of an Earth’s Terran Defense commander, and when he turned, he took off his hat and placed it upon the console. White hair, a disapproving scowl, slate eyes that mirrored his own. 

“Commander Shirogane.” Iverson inclined his head in greeting. “Major Shirogane.”

Shiro’s eyes widened, but his body moved on its own, on instinct arm lifting in a salute. “Sir –”

Shiro wasn’t sure what happened, wasn’t sure he could process it. One moment, he was staring at his grandfather’s condescending glare, and the next, he was in his grandfather’s arms. One of Ojiisan’s hands fisted in the back of his jacket; the other cradled the back of his neck. Shiro’s momentary shock eventually wore off, but his grandfather’s grip held firm. 

Shiro vaguely heard Iverson excuse himself, but the paladins remained, standing behind him as a quasi-barrier against any attack. They’d always have his back, and when his grandfather took hold Shiro’s shoulders, Shiro appreciated their presence. 

Ojiisan remained silent, but his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing Shiro’s white bangs, the scar across his face, his Galran arm peeking out from his sleeve. Shiro’s hand fisted on reflex, his uncertainty bubbling up the back of his throat. He feared the arm, feared having a weapon the Galra gave him against his will, but then a memory resurfaced, from his time on the castle-ship. About a year into their mission, Lance had threaded his fingers with Shiro’s mechanical ones and squeezed. 

“Haggar may have given it to you, but it’s your arm now. You decide what to do with it.”

And he used it to fight whoever threatened the universe – and his family. 

Shiro’s hand unfurled as his grandfather cradled his cheeks between his hands. His voice was rough, gravelly, like Shiro remembered from his youth. “You didn’t come home.”

Shiro responded, equally as low, “I didn’t think I’d be welcome.”

“Takashi.” Tender, patient. “You are always welcome. Never think otherwise.”

Shiro’s eyes slipped shut. His hands lifted on their own, gripping back as fiercely as his grandfather held him. He buried his face in his grandfather’s shoulder, fighting his own sobs and unable to silence them completely. 

His grandfather’s hands ran methodically through his hair, and though Shiro felt seven again, waking from a bad dream, he accepted that this was almost the exact same scenario, only the dream had been reality. 

He wasn’t sure how long he’d stood there, simply holding onto his grandfather until Cosmo whined and nudged his hip. Keith hissed at the wolf and came forward, but Shiro’s grandfather released him to offer a hand to Keith. 

“Thank you, Kogane. Iverson was telling me how you helped Shiro after he crash-landed on Earth. I’m glad he wasn’t alone.”

Keith accepted the hug, Shiro reflected with some pride, but the Red Paladin motioned to the team once released. “It wasn’t just me, sir. We all watch out for each other, and Shiro watches out of us. That how it works.”

Ojiisan’s eyes swept across the paladins, and Shiro stepped before them, welcoming the fond smile that lifted the edge of his lips. “Ojiisan, these are the paladins, my family, too.”

Pidge nodded, and Allura stepped forward to present herself. Lance assaulted Ojiisan in a quasi-bear hug. “Ojiisan!”

“And this is Lance. He’s the Blue Paladin and the most, uh, friendly.”

“It’s okay, Shiro. I know I’m your favorite.”

Shiro laughed and clasped Lance’s shoulder, but Ojiisan took the introductions in stride, eventually accepting a hug from each paladin and petting Cosmo’s long mane. 

A small smile found Ojiisan’s lips. “I heard you have a black cat.”

In the hanger, Black went down on his stomach, paws flat on the ground, and dropped his snout to meet Shiro’s raised hand. Black tilted his head to the side to regard Ojiisan, and when Ojiisan pressed his hand flat against Black’s snout, Black purred in the back of Shiro’s mind. 

“I guess…you can keep him,” Ojiisan whispered, in utter awe. 

“I think it’s the other way around,” Shiro laughed, though really – Black was his partner, his friend, an essential part of him. 

He wasn’t sure how he had gone for so long without talking to Ojiisan, and though it’d take time to heal the wounds, Shiro was confident they would.

“How long until the Atlas launches?” Ojiisan asked ten minutes when they sat inside the Black Lion’s cockpit. “I’d like you to come home to Japan for a few weeks, if possible.” 

Shiro returned a gentle smile. “I’d like that.”

Ojiisan nodded, dropping his hand to Black’s console and brushing his hand along the smooth metal. “Why you? Why did this creature have to choose you?”

Shiro wondered that before, many times, and Black snorted in the back of his mind, not appreciating being called a “creature.” But his presence swept about Shiro and eventually settled against his hip. 

“Because I was taught to do the right thing, to help others less fortunate than I. To believe in myself and surround myself with good people so if I failed, they’d always have my back, just like I always have theirs.”

Ojiisan shook his head and let out a loud sigh. “I taught you all the wrong lessons.”

“You don’t believe that.”

Ojiisan laughed. “No, I don’t.”

Shiro leaned back in his seat and leaned into Black’s soothing embrace. “You should have believed in me. You should have trusted me.”

“You’re sick, Takashi.” Ojiisan stared out Black’s viewer screen before he leaned back against the panel and crossed his arms. “If you became more ill on the way to Kerberos, we wouldn’t have had the resources to get you, and you thought I’d approve?”

Shiro wanted to banish the last argument from his mind, but the emotions were still raw. “The treatments were working. I was cleared. There was no reason to believe – ”

“Takashi,” Ojiisan murmured, and when Shiro’s eyes jerked up, Ojiisan held his gaze with the grave truth. “I lost your father. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you, too. And then I did – and…” He sent nothing else, just dropped his hand to Shiro’s shoulder and squeezed. 

Shiro placed his hand over his grandfather’s, holding it until the older man’s stopped shaking. 

So much had happened since Shiro left Earth, since the last time he saw Ojiisan, and though he wasn’t quite the same person who left, Shiro felt that maybe, he wasn’t so different after all. 

Shiro noticed Ojiisan staring at his naked wrist, which no longer was trapped by electronic bracelets. “How much time do you have?” 

Shiro looked at his Galran arm and smiled. “All the time in the cosmos.” 

_The End_


End file.
